Holidays can teach us many things — about a destination, about other people and about ourselves.
MARK MITCHINSON
Without sounding like the protagonist from the Lemonjelly song Rambling Man, I do love to travel and I've been to some amazing places on this wonderful planet and learnt myriad things aboutpeople, food and the planet in the process.
I've travelled with others often and had awesome experiences - Italy, France, Spain, USA - but if you want to go to a place with others it must be Greece. I travelled to Greece in my early 20s with friends and learnt the joys of freedom camping, swimming in the Aegean, eating octopus and falling in love with everything Greek. And believe me, you do.
Travelling with family, is also amazing. Showing my children amazing new places like Laos and Vietnam and protecting them from shoe-stealing street fenders in Hanoi. Extraordinary.
But if I'm honest my favourite of all travel is the travels you do on your own. It's life changing and usually embarked upon when your life needs a reboot, or you need to give yourself a stern kick in the pants.
My first real case of solo travel and one that most stands out was a trip to Cork in Ireland in my early 30s. A close friend had decided I needed to do something to get over a recent break-up with a woman whom I of course loved but it was never going to work. Yep, you know those ones. So he suggested I take my mountain bike, fly to Cork and do a bike ride around the south of Ireland. Slightly crazy I thought. But left field enough to piqued my interest so off I went.
I packed light with only a few clothes and an iPod (one of the old ones with the turning wheel). I arrived in Cork and began my ride down through Clonakilty (amazing Black pudding) all the way to Baltimore (extraordinary cliffs) up through Bantry (beautiful beach) into the pouring rain of Ballingeary then down, soaked to the skin, into Inchigeelagh near the Cork/Kerry border.
Kiwi actor Mark Mitchinson cycled his way through southern Ireland to get over a broken heart. Photo / Supplied
As I walked into the bar the landlord leaned across it and in exalted terms screamed: "Bejesus man! Have ya rode in from Kerry? Coz you're a Lynch if ever I've seen one". This began one of the most extraordinary three days of my life as I stayed in Inchigeelagh, kidnapped by the landlord and his wife, who showed me my history, supplied me with copious amounts of Guinness and together we sang until my voice was hoarse.
It was a tripwire that I found out, completely by accident, about my Kerry history and how the Lynchs helped the fine people of Cork fight the English. As it turned out my family on my Dad's side are the Lynchs from Kerry and not Cork as I'd always been taught and in that small moment of time I learnt all about that rich history on a bike, in the rain, with people who I'll never forget.
Mark Mitchinson stars in Straight Forward, screening on TVNZ OnDemand from June 24.
